Zomato appears to keep innovating with its product and marketing strategies, but every once in a while its plans end up having unintended consequences.
Zomato is facing opposition from local residents in some areas after its delivery workers dressed up as Santa Claus for Christmas. On Christmas, Zomato had made a section of its delivery partners dress up as Santa Claus, complete with the hat, the oversized red shirt and the trousers. These delivery partners were showing up at customers’ homes with gifts and free subscriptions to Zomato Gold. “Yup, our Santas are out distributing some gifts today. If you spot one, share with #MyEverydaySanta,” Zomato posted on X.
But local residents in some areas weren’t pleased with Zomato delivery personnel dressing up as Santa Claus. In a video shared from Indore, a man asks a delivery partner “Kyon bhaiya, are you delivering items dressed as Santa Claus on Christmas?”, to which the delivery partner replies in the affirmative. “But do you ever dress up as gods of other religions when they have their festivals,” the man asks. “No, but the company gave us the costume,” the delivery partner replied. “But why don’t you ever wear the costumes of Hindu gods while delivering items? You can do similar things on Diwali,” the man tells the delivery partner. The man then asks the Zomato delivery partner to take off his Santa Claus costume, to which the delivery partner agrees.
The man might’ve had a point — Zomato doesn’t appear to have made its delivery partners put on any sort of clothes on other festivals, but chose to make an exception for Christmas. This appeared to have made some residents uncomfortable, who didn’t appreciate the religious intrusion at their doorsteps. But this isn’t the first time that Zomato has courted controversy over religious issues — in 2019, Hindu and Muslim delivery partners at the company had protested over being made to carry beef and pork respectively in their orders, and gone on strike. Zomato had also courted controversy after it had told a customer that “food has no religion — it is a religion” when they’d requested a non-Muslim delivery partner for the month of Shrawan. But with the company now itself sending Santa Claus to people’s doorsteps on Christmas, the shoe seems to be on the other foot — Zomato appears to be facing backlash from locals over mixing religion with its food delivery service.